Since no one has presented a version of the dotsies bookmarklet, which is actually necessary to use them in practice, I'll go and make one with the proper mapping for v3.
If there is one already, let me know.
Actually, looks like all the permutations in the bookmarklet only allow you to use glyphs in Dotsies.tff, and there are some possible glyphs missing. I'll have to edit the font file.
Gosh I've tried to write this list 3 times now and I've never felt anything was comprehensive enough to put on HN.
So, hopefully the attempt will be sufficient -
<speech boilerplate "want to protect my family, need to keep you informed, if you arent going to get off of the net, then you need to be prepared">
1) Humor is being used to weaponize and radicalize people. A significant group of people who identify as alt right were first introdcued to the ideas via humor. Please be careful of off colour humor. You and me may think it is a joke with no bearing on reality. But there are people who think that its not a joke, and that the ideas behind it
2) Be ware whatsapp - I'm in India and there is a spate of lynchings in rural areas because of whatsapp forwards. People have been killed because they are suspected of being child abductors.
I've personally seen the videos and they are horrific, they include videos of a live child being gutted - but its a gang video from mexico. Another video depicting an abduction, is from a child safety video in Pakistan - theyre spread between maids, drivers, auto-wallahs and office workers.
An Indian state has tried to grapple with this problem by direct communication with the villages, by using drummers, warning people to not trust forwards. Tragically one of the people paid to inform people was himself killed, on suspicion of being a child abductor.
3) Increasing polarizaiton - What started out as mild jokes are expanding into massive cracks in the fabric of my world. A North/South Indian divide has grown from an occasional joke, to an often oozing wound. Online media carries no tone or body language; when people interact in this impoverished environment, our brains end up responding to the strongest emotional versions of a comment. Small fights end up creating lasting grudges.
So don't EVER forward anything mildly polarizing and divisive.
4) Dont trust emotions - almost ANY item which generates an emotional response in you, should be treated as suspect. The best way people have to get you to stop thinking rationally, is by making you think emotionally.
Other things that come to mind are fake news, and the nature of the media formats to keep people on it, and the entire behavioral science behind it. (Skinnerian conditioning, reward schedules, the network effect, responsive design, social approval and so on).
A good point to bring up is depression, and the fact that material on social media is biased, few people talk about an average day or a terrible day or embarrassing things. Humans were not designed to be seduced into believing that the world is great for everyone else and average for me.
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For the normal person listening in good faith, any one of those points is sufficient to create a sense of discomfort.
But ultimately, the main driver is the fact that most people are already uncomfortable with social media and are sitting on a pile of bad experiences.
I might offer some insight here. I’m slightly obsessive about not inconveniencing other people. I try hard to put things in their proper places, not to eat the last bite of anything without asking or being offered, not making noise, not leaving electronics in misconfigured states, not leaving my own stuff lying around, I could go on.
It’s worse than the few obsession I’ve had around my own preferences, because I lack the introspection when it comes to people other than myself. I don’t know if they are sensitive to this or that particular nuisance and my priors seem to be dialed up to eleven.
I end up trying not to be around other people do that I won’t fall into these obsessive patterns as often.
What are some research areas complementary to the quantum computing/computational complexity where additional effort would remove roadblocks in QC research?
Oh no! I was following his work closely and had high hopes for him delivering on his vision: type theory and constructive notion of equality not getting in the way of doing mathematics with computer, but helping us along. It will hopefully will be picked up by his collaborators.
I could use some encouragement and life advice. I apologize if this ends up being long and whiny.
I feel like I'm stuck on the outside of the part of society where all the meaningful intellectual work happens.
Since I was a child I have always aspired to learn from the scientists and engineers and humanitarians so that I could be like them one day. I've read Hamming, Feynman, Norvig, Herbert Alexander Simon, and felt that those were the people who have gotten it right, that that's what life should be about. Explore the world, do hard, honest work of figuring things out and building something new that helps people realize their potential and live better. Find the math behind the mundane and harness it to improve the human condition.
But I've been struggling with depression for years and I'm ashamed of how I spent my time in university. I feel that I haven't found a mentor or path of my own. I've constantly felt overwhelmed and let down by myself and by the system. I feel that I don't have the skills or the resolve to just plow ahead and do things. I feel that whenever I try to do research, or write, or even think out loud it ends up with a mockery of the real thing.
Right now I've graduated from a five-year course in computational linguistics, did half a year of antidepressants, half a year of advanced math seminars and moved to Israel for a change of scenery. I would really like to find a collective here where I could learn and solve real problems. Join a startup or do a PhD.
I still have a crippling case of impostor syndrome and occasional panic attacks. If any of you here have suggestions — however specific or general, — I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for the honesty, let me give you some practical advice and maybe a birdseye view of your situation (or at least how I think about it)
- From your wording, I think you're looking too far ahead in the future, emphasising the long journey ahead of you.
- What I'd suggest you doing, is, kind of like this little post, start extremely TINY.
1. Pick a field you're interested in. Don't overthink it, you don't have to spend the rest of your life with this one decision. Just pick 1 thing in the next 8 seconds. It's just a tiny little experiment.
2. Find a non-profit organisation within that category that you can support with voluntary work. Again... don't overdo it. Just helping them spread the word, or simply sending them an email of appreciation for the work they're doing is a great start.
3. From the action you take in step 2, use the positive feeling you've gained to do an other tiny act of goodness. Potentially write about each tiny action you take, and keep a blog about those positive feeling/findings/etc.
I'm curious to follow your journey.
Small steps ahead, and before you know it, you can look back at a long trail of awesomeness, appreciating how you got there. Instead of looking to the future, not knowing how to get there.
I've just send a note of appreciation to the Centre for Effective Altruism. Let's hope that's a first step. I'll try keeping track of them @ https://mastodon.xyz/web/accounts/75086
Use the positive feeling to propel myself forward, you say? I'll go help my housemates with the chores and do a writeup on formal correctness proofs.
Sure beats feeling bad about not applying for jobs here more aggressively.
I'll keep in mind your suggestion of starting tiny, starting over instead of staying stuck, and not overemphasizing the big picture. I'm grateful you took the time to answer.
The most specific, and yet still very general, advice I can give is meditation/mindfulness. it works even separated from more fundamental perspectives on life, but I'd argue it's especially valuable in that context.
EDIT: what I like about characters like Feynman and the stories they tell is that they seem to really confirm this approach to me. Feynman struck me as a person not too inhibited by introspection, but rather propelled by curiosity. If I meditate or let my mind rest and give up on the 'demands' of the world, I cannot help but feel that the resulting state is the kind that Feynman actively cultivated (without realizing it, perhaps).
There's other stuff I feel like sharing, but honestly I believe that if you focus on this, and not just as a cool new idea but actual practice, it's likely to be worthwhile enough to make the rest inconsequential in comparison.
I want to get involved with an open source project, I am familiar with Haskell and enthusiastic about making it more accessible. I've just completed an educational project where I've used iPython with my students and I would have used Haskell if the tooling were a bit smoother.
So far the entry barrier was too high for me but I want to reach out and ask if anyone is willing to hold my hand a little so that I might get over the initial hurdles. Could you suggest some entry points for me? A bug tracker, an IRC channel, a github issues page? Should I just hack on it on my own until I have a specific unit of work to contribute, or is there someone who could use my help with the coding and provide guidance as to the organizational side of things?
Put amplification behind a trivial inconvenience that would make knee-jerk retweets less frequent and allow the whole chain reaction to cool down.